3314 MYANMAR (Sagaing Region) - Settawya Pagoda in Mingun

Located on the west bank of Irrawaddy river, a mere 230 meters SE of the Mingun Pahtodawgyi, the Settawya Pagoda is a small, whitewashed Buddhist chapel constructed along classical Pagan lines, built to house a marble footprint of the Buddha. It was build between 1804 and 1811 under the direction of King Bodawpaya Konbaung (r. 1782-1819), who spent most of his attention on the much grander but ill-fated Mingun Pahtodawgyi pagoda. The completed temple included a set of marble stairs leading down to the river, creating a grand entrance for visitors approaching by water.

3256 MYANMAR (Yangon Region) - Karaweik Hall

The Karaweik Hall, also known as Karaweik Palace is one of Yangon's many landmarks. From a distance, it looks like a huge golden barge floating on Kandawgyi Lake, glittering in the sun. The word karaweik comes from Pali karavika, which is a mythical bird with a melodious cry. The barge was designed by Burmese architect U Ngwe Hlaing, who based it on the Pyigyimon royal barge. Construction began in June 1972 and it was finished in October 1974.

3150 MYANMAR (Mon State) - Kyaiktiyo Pagoda

Also known as Golden Rock, Kyaiktiyo Pagoda is a well-known Buddhist pilgrimage located in the northern part of the Tenasserim coast, at an elevation of 1,100 m above mean sea level, on top of the Kyaiktiyo hill, on the Paung-laung ridge of the Eastern Yoma mountains. It is a small pagoda (7.3m) built on the top of a granite boulder covered with gold leaves pasted on by its male devotees. Presently, women are not allowed into the inner sanctuary of the rocks vicinity, but are permitted in the outer balcony and the lower courtyard of the rock.

2962 MYANMAR (Kayah State) - The Karenni people

The Karenni people, also known as the Red Karen, the Kayah or the Kayahli (meaning "red human"), are a Sino-Tibetan people living mostly in Kayah State, Myanmar. A long period they lived in their own states, the Karenni States, located south of the Federated Shan States and east of British Burma, and ruled by petty princes named myozas. They were independent until British rule in Burma, and had feudal ties to the Burmese kingdom.

0686, 2951 MYANMAR (Mandalay Region) - Bagan Archaeological Area and Monuments (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

0686 Bagan Archaeological Area and Monuments

Posted on 19.06.2013, 14.02.2017
Capital of the Kingdom of Pagan (the first kingdom which unified the regions that would later constitute modern Myanmar) from the 9th to 13th centuries, Bagan is considered by many as equal in attraction to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. During the kingdom's height, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed here, of which the remains of over 2500 still survive to the present day. Several of these monuments are still higly venerated by the population, and attract numerous pilgrims and devotees from all over the country, particularly at festival times, but also many tourists.

2951 Ananda Temple in Bagan

The Bagan temples falls into one of two broad categories: the stupa-style solid temples and the gu-style hollow temples. The original Indic design of the stupas (zeidi or zedi in Burmese) was gradually modified first in Pyu city states, and then in Bagan, where they developed a longer, cylindrical form, become the prototypes for later Burmese stupas in terms of symbolism, form and design, building techniques and even materials. In contrast to the stupas, the hollow gu-style temple is a structure used for meditation, devotional worship of the Buddha and other Buddhist rituals.

2932 MYANMAR (Yangon Region) - Bogyoke Aung San Market in Yangon

Bogyoke Aung San Market (formerly Scott's Market) is a major bazaar located in Pabedan township in central Yangon. Known for its colonial architecture and inner cobblestone streets, the market is a major tourist destination, dominated by antique, Burmese handicraft and jewellery shops, art galleries, and clothing stores, but also is a popular black market location to exchange currency. It was built in 1926, late in the British rule of Myanmar, and it was named after the Municipal Commissioner of the time, Mr. Gavin Scott. After Burmese independence in 1948, it was renamed after Bogyoke (General) Aung San. A new wing of the market was added across Bogyoke Market Road in the 1990s.

2241 MYANMAR (Yangon Region) - View of Yangon

2241 Yangon: on left - City Hall; on background - High Court;
on right - Sule Pagoda.

Yangon (also known as Rangoon, literally: "End of Strife"), the former capital of Myanmar (Burma), is the country's largest city and has the largest number of colonial buildings in Southeast Asia. Colonial Yangon, with its spacious parks and lakes and mix of modern buildings and traditional wooden architecture, was known as "the garden city of the East." Downtown Yangon is still mainly made up of decaying colonial buildings.

1728 MYANMAR (Mandalay Region) - Shwezigon Pagoda in Nyaung-U

The Shwezigon Pagoda or Shwezigon Paya is a Buddhist temple located in Nyaung-U, a town near Bagan. It is a prototype of Burmese stupas, and consists of a circular gold leaf-gilded stupa surrounded by smaller temples and shrines. The gilded pagoda sits on three rising terraces. Enameled plaques in panels around the base of the pagoda illustrate scenes from the previous lives of the Buddha, also known as the 550 Jatakas. Its construction began during the reign of King Anawrahta and was completed in 1102 AD, during the reign of King Kyansittha. Within the compound of the Shwezigon Pagoda is a stone pillar containing Mon language inscriptions dedicated by King Kyansittha.

0679 MYANMAR (Kachin State) - Kachin girls on the bank of Mali River

The Kachin people (also known as Jingpho people) inhabit the Kachin Hills in northern Myanmar's Kachin State and neighbouring areas of China and India. They are actually an ethnic affinity of several tribal groups, known for their fierce independence, disciplined fighting skills, complex clan inter-relations, craftsmanship, herbal healing and jungle survival skills. In recent decades, their animist beliefs have been largely supplanted by their accelerated embrace of Christianity.

0587 & 0618 MYANMAR / THAILAND - Kayan Lahwi

Posted on 05.04.2013 and completed on 27.04.2013
The woman on the postcard is part of the ethnic subgroup Kayan Lahwi (also called Padaung). The Kayan is in its turn a subgroup of the Red Karen (Karenni) people, a Tibeto-Burman ethnic minority of Myanmar. In the late 1980s due to conflict with the military regime in Myanmar, many Kayan tribes fled to the Thai border area. Among the refugee camps set up there was a Long Neck section, which became a tourist site. Although some countries are willing to accept a number of refugees, Thai authorities didn't let go to Kayan Lahw, because it would lose earnings from tourism.

Women of this tribe are known for wearing brass coils (in spiral) that are placed around the neck, appearing to lengthen it. Girls first start to wear rings when they are around five years old. Over the years the coil is replaced by a longer one, and more turns are added. The weight of the brass (up to 10 kg) pushes the collar bone down and compresses the rib cage. The neck itself is not lengthened; the appearance of a stretched neck is created by the deformation of the clavicle. Many ideas regarding why the coils are worn have been suggested, often formed by visiting anthropologists, who have hypothesized that the rings protected women from becoming slaves by making them less attractive to other tribes. Contrastingly it has been theorised that the coils originate from the desire to look more attractive by exaggerating sexual dimorphism. The coils might be meant to protect from tiger bites, perhaps literally, but probably symbolically.

The full set of neck rings is made from three separate coils, the main neck coil and a wider coil near the shoulders with a small coil wrapped around it at 90 degrees. Few women wear this full set. Brass coils are also worn around the legs. The rings rubbing against the skin can cause discomfort and abrasions over a period of time. Some of the women, especially the young ones, don’t want anymore to be human exhibits and removed their coil. Contrary to popular belief, this has no effect on women's health, only a slight discomfort that lasts 3-4 days.